 |
Articles
|
|
According to Costs and Spirit
// IGOR CHUVILIN, Published in the Gazeta, Vol. 32 of February, 21, 2007
21 february 2007
The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography (Roskultura) held the press conference dedicated to the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art yesterday. The Biennale organizers told what Moscow venues will house display within the framework of the Biennale, and what the cost of the whole project was.
Everybody was fascinated by the answer to the question concerning the cost of the whole event: Mikhail Shvydkoy, the head of Roskultura, said that 52 million rubles were spent on the Biennale. This sum plus sponsors’ money will pay for the shows of the Main Project and of Special Projects, for the Special Guests project of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and the philosophy conference to be held in Moscow from March 1 to April 1. The Biennale also features a parallel program, and its shows are already opening in the Russian capital.
The main venues of the biennale are the new building of the TSUM supermarket and the Federation Tower of the Moscow city which is under construction now. According to the organizers of the Biennale, the space of the V. I. Lenin Museum involved in the First Moscow Biennale two years ago had great success, especially with foreign colleagues and viewers. This time, as Mikhail Shvydkoy put it, they selected venues according to their cost and the spirit of contemporary art. “In this sense the TSUM building is better than Maly Theater, for instance,” Roskultura head remarked. Joseph Backstein, the Commissioner of the Moscow Biennale, said that floors from 18 to 21 of the Federation Tower will function as exhibition venues. Describing the peculiarity of this exhibitional space, the commissioner said, “There is no design in it. Just plain concrete. We couldn’t even dream of anything better.”
Alexander Borovsky, the Head of the Newest Trends Department of the State Russian Museum, remarked that the lists of the Biennale participants feature many Russian artists. “The epoch of tour makers is ending. I mean the tours of both artists and curators,” he claimed. Nevertheless, numerous foreign experts act as curators of the Biennale, just as two years ago. Besides Joseph Backstein, the curators of the main project include Daniel Birnbaum, Iara Boubnova, Nicolas Bourriaud, Gunnar Kvaran, Rosa Martinez, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Fuliya Erdemchi.
View all publications
|
|
